Report: Saint-Gobain ceases operations in Devens

DEVENS -- Saint-Gobain, a France-based building-materials company, has ceased operations at the former Evergreen Solar plant at 112 Barnum Road.

The company, which shared space with Clinton-based Nypro Corp., told the Worcester Business Journal that it ended its production of components used in LED lights sometime during the spring.

Bill Seiberlich, a spokesman for Saint-Gobain, told the newspaper that a small number of employees are still working to close down the site.

Seiberlich said in a statement provided to the Journal that "changes in the market" prompted the decision. He said the company employed 54 people in Devens at its peak, and about two-thirds of them have been transferred to another Saint-Gobain facility in MIlford, N.H.

The 448,000-square-foot building was built by Evergreen Solar to build solar panels. But that market crashed, and Evergreen closed the p,ant in 2011, putting about 800 people out of work.

The following year, Hackman Capital of Los Angeles and Calare Properties of Hudson, Mass., bought the plant out of Evergreen's bankruptcy for $8.5 million.

The Massachusetts state government had given Evergreen $58 million to help build the $480 million plant.

Nypro announced last fall that it would move into part of the complex, with plans to move in and add up to 165 jobs there.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of Nashoba Publishing. So keep it civil.